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China has launched a new round of military drills around Taiwan, in a warning to “independence” forces following Taipei’s largest-ever weapons procurement deal with the US.
The joint Chinese military drills will involve army, navy, air and rocket forces operating in the Taiwan Strait as well as in areas to the north, south-west, south-east and east of Taiwan, according to a statement issued by the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command on Monday.
The “Justice Mission 2025” exercises will include testing PLA combat readiness for maritime and air combat, as well as blockades of ports and strategic areas, establishing battlefield control and deterring external forces, the statement said.
“This serves as a serious warning to Taiwan independence separatist forces and external interference forces,” said Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the command. “It is a necessary action to defend national sovereignty and safeguard national unity.”
The drills will involve live-fire exercises on Tuesday, and ships and aircraft were warned to avoid nearby sea and airspace, the PLA said.
$11.1bn
Value of latest US arms sale to Taiwan
China’s military has become increasingly assertive around Taiwan in recent years. Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to take control by force if Taipei resists its pressure indefinitely.
Earlier this month, the US approved a $11.1bn arms sale to Taiwan, the largest package of its kind, as Taipei seeks to strengthen its defence capabilities against Chinese threats.
In a mostly symbolic response to the arms sale, Beijing this week announced sanctions against 20 US military-related companies and their staff.
China’s foreign ministry on Monday published an article on its official WeChat account titled: “The US must fully recognise the grave consequences of arms sales to Taiwan”.
The ministry said: “The balance of power across the Strait has fundamentally shifted. No matter how the US attempts to turn Taiwan into a so-called porcupine, it will not be able to stop China’s eventual and complete reunification.”
Heightened tensions over Taiwan threaten to complicate a fragile thaw in US-China relations, after presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump agreed a truce in the trade war between the world’s largest economies in late October.
The drills also come amid a bitter diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo, after Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.
Taiwan’s presidential office spokesperson on Monday called on China to immediately stop “irresponsible and provocative actions”.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said that the country needed to “keep raising the difficulty” for China of a potential invasion. He reiterated the need for Taiwan to strengthen its defences and invest in military capabilities, local media reported.
“Crossing the [Taiwan Strait] is itself a difficult challenge,” he said. “When Russia invaded Ukraine, it simply drove tanks in directly.”
In November, Lai pledged to spend about $40bn on weapons over the next eight years — Taiwan’s largest special defence budget in more than three decades — as his administration aims to deter Beijing and signal to Trump Taipei’s clear determination to pay for its own defences.
The US state department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the drills were the second large-scale exercises since Trump returned to the White House, and would “test” his administration’s response.
Beijing is likely to “take into account the response from the US and carefully determine how it should formulate and plan the PLA’s military operations, including regular training and more tactical shows of force to pressure Taiwan”, Yang said.
He added that Beijing also probably saw an opportunity to help exacerbate domestic political turmoil in Taiwan.
“The opposition parties have been accusing the Lai administration of heightening the risks of conflict with China because of his cross-strait policies and efforts to increase Taiwan’s defence budget,” Yang said.